Days 51-55: Pureora Forest

Back on the trail! Well, sort of, and only temporarily. Liz rested her foot in Te Kuiti with Donna and Brett, while I headed out to hike about 80km through Pureora Forest, ending up in Taumarunui. It was a great forest - possibly the best so far. I was sad that Liz missed it, but happy to have something to do for a few days.

Days 46-50: New Friends And Some Foot Healing

We've spent the last five days in Te Kuiti, staying with Donna and Brett, and making some great new friends! Liz has also had the first real improvement in her foot after some reflexology and visiting the "physio" (NZ for physical therapist).

Days 39-45: Time For Plan B

Well, we are still in Hamilton. We've been off the trail for about 10 days now, and are starting to feel a bit fat and out of shape after suddenly becoming so sedentary for so long. We are really itching to get back on the trail, but unfortunately it looks like we'll probably be taking a few weeks off.

Trail Food

Food is something we spend a lot of time thinking about. Hiking almost every day for a month makes you ravenous. Whenever we hit a grocery store, we buy all sorts of outrageous, heavy, spoilable things to consume immediately. Whole bags of potato chips, quarts of milk, and kilograms of kiwis have disappeared in a blink of an eye. And all without an ounce of guilt - both of us have lost weight on this trip, and need as many calories as we can get.

Days 36-38: Rest and Perspective

We've spent the last 2 days resting at a very nice AirBnB in Frankton (near Hamilton), at the home of a Chinese couple who recently moved here to start a carpentry business. While in Mercer, we decided to skip about 80 km ahead on the trail to rest in Hamilton, which is a larger city with many more options for accommodations and shopping than the smaller towns north of here. We're unhappy about skipping any of the trail, and have vowed to come back and do this section before we leave the country, but it was the best of several bad options.

Days 30-35: A Marathon and a Forest Crawl

Another 5 days down, another 120 km behind us. We're up to kilometer 720, and are approaching the one quarter mark on the trail.

Days 23-29: Back to Where We Started

We've arrived back in Auckland! 600 km down, only 2400 more to go. It only took a few hours on a few buses to get from here to our starting point, but it took us more than 3 weeks to get back on foot. I can confidently say that the foot route is much more interesting though.